


Fear Itself

by obaewankenope (rexthranduil)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Boggarts, Clown mention, Gen, Ginny is BAMF, Ginny's year, Second Year Gryffindors, Tom Riddle is a creepy mofo no matter what
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-27
Updated: 2019-05-27
Packaged: 2020-03-20 10:17:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18990667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rexthranduil/pseuds/obaewankenope
Summary: Standing behind her classmates, Ginny fights back the clawing need in her chest to ask Professor Lupin if she can skip this class; just this once.





	Fear Itself

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written and posted to my [tumblr](https://obaewankenope.tumblr.com) [here](https://obaewankenope.tumblr.com/post/182608699962/standing-behind-her-classmates-ginny-fights-back)

Standing behind her classmates, Ginny fights back the clawing need in her chest to ask Professor Lupin if she can skip this class; just this once. From what she’d overheard from the third year Gryffindors, the Boggart would assume the form of whatever they feared the most and Ginny was pretty sure she knew what form it would take for her.

But no, she wouldn’t let her fear control her actions. She refused to let that- that- that  _thing_ decide things for her. Not again.

Never again.

Professor Lupin calls them up one by one, cheering each student that successfully cast the counter on the Boggart and reassuring those that failed. Ginny wondered what he would do when it was her turn.

Maybe he’d step in and save her from facing-

He doesn’t. 

“Ginny! You’re next!” Lupin’s voice is bright and cheerful, encouraging even as he calls from across the room. He’s close enough to intervene if things go wrong – he had for a Hufflepuff just before – but not so close that he’ll affect the Boggart’s form.

Ginny is on her own.

She could back out, she knows she can. And there’d be no shame in it, she knows, but the idea of letting her fear rule her, of backing down  _now_ … everything that Ginny is rebels against such action. 

_‘Bugger that,’_  she thinks harshly, determinedly stepping forward, _‘I won’t let him stop me again.’_

The wardrobe shakes ominously before the handle turns and the door clicks open. 

Unlike Colin’s Boggart – a clown – Ginny’s worst fear is quiet and unassuming. He steps out of the wardrobe with little fanfare and straightens his robe as he looks around.

He doesn’t have a wand, Ginny notes as her breathing speeds up. Somehow, that’s so much worse.

There’s murmuring behind her, her classmates confused as to who this mystery person is – Ginny knows they’ve noticed the robes, how old fashioned they are, the Slytherin badge on the front, but she also knows they have no idea who this person is.

She raises her wand, unable to think of any way to make this- this  _shade_ funny when it speaks, stopping her mid-motion.

“You’re as pathetic now as you were then.” His voice is soft, arrogant, and his words are cold like winter frost. “Another year gone and you still look like a frightened little girl desperate to be noticed.”

Ginny stares at him, frozen to the spot by his voice, by the truth in them. It’s what she fears most; how well he  _knows_ her.

The class is silent behind her, a growing confusion laced with fear rapidly spreading. Even Professor Lupin is quiet, stood to the side, watching.

How is Ginny meant to make this funny? How is she meant to laugh at this monster who looks so innocent, so  _normal_? She doesn’t know.

“But _I_  noticed you, didn’t I?” He continues, voice velvet-soft. He takes a step toward her, just one, and Ginny’s body shifts, unfreezes enough for her to automatically take a step back. He smirks at her. “I listened to you and all your fears, I was there, wasn’t I, Ginny? Not like your brothers, your family, your  _friends_.”

He takes another step but this time Ginny doesn’t move away. She’s frozen. She can’t breathe. She can’t think. All she can do is stare at him as he comes within touching distance.

“No matter what happens,” he whispers, looking down at her with malice in his eyes even as he smiles so beautifully at her, “your greatest fear is that you will never be free of me; that no one will ever know you the way I do.”

He leans down. “And it’s true,” he confesses, and Ginny feels tears roll down her cheeks, stinging her skin. “Because I’m part of you now, forever. And that makes you  _mine_.”

“No!”

Her hands slam into his chest, shoving him away from her with a sudden strength that catches on her fear and grows into anger.  _“No!”_

The smile on his face turns grotesque, twisting his handsome features into something inhuman. Those eyes, cold as death already, flash red with anger. “You’re mine!” He snarls, moving towards her again. “You will always be mine!”

Ginny’s anger flares brighter, fed by her fear and the pain from what happened. “No,” she declares, aiming her wand square at his chest. “I belong to  _no one_.”

_“Riddickulus!”  
_

Maybe what happens to him isn’t funny to anyone else, it’s probably absolutely horrifying if she’s honest, but watching a giant snake attack this nightmare of hers is the most liberating thing Ginny’s ever witnessed.

She doesn’t laugh, not really, she can’t, it’s not something to laugh at. But she does smile. Through her tears, she smiles.

Tom Riddle had been a friend to her, she had trusted him with her secrets and her fears and he had betrayed her. Ron and Harry had rescued her, but Riddle was always there, in the back of her mind. Watching him explode in a burst of light – the same way Harry had told her had happened in the Chamber – Ginny finally laughs. 

“I  _never_ belonged to you,” she whispers, watching the Boggart-made Basilisk fade away, disappearing back into the wardrobe. “Never.”

Professor Lupin’s face is pale as he declares that the class is over and no one has any homework. Ginny doesn’t really care. There’s a weight on her shoulders that’s suddenly missing, one she hadn’t even noticed. 

She could have gone her entire life without seeing Riddle ever again, but she figures that the Boggart was useful in the end. No one had talked to her about what happened; well, her parents had scolded her about using a diary that talked back, her brothers had crowded her and suffocated her with their overbearing behaviour, and none of her friends knew the truth. So Ginny had just accepted it. Hidden it deep down under her seething frustration at being treated like she was incapable of anything.

Now though? Well, now Ginny feels like she can do anything and to hell with the consequences. Her parents are always going to be protective, her brothers always going to think she knows nothing, so she might as well just move on and do whatever she wants.

Riddle can’t hold her back anymore so Ginny will be damned if she’ll let anyone else do the same.

**Author's Note:**

> Ginny never got a single bit of consideration for what she went through in canon. I get that was because it was Harry's perspective, but still. So yeah, Ginny deserved better. And damn it but _I'll give her better this way if I have to._


End file.
